


What If (It Doesn’t Matter)

by deathishauntedbyhumans



Series: Nightmares [1]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Dreams and Nightmares, Gen, Post-Canon, References to s2e17: Dipper&Mabel vs. The Future, Sibling Bonding, Wordcount: 1.000-3.000, bc there’s no way that kid went thru all the hell he did w/o it, implied PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-22
Updated: 2019-03-22
Packaged: 2019-11-28 02:01:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18201998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deathishauntedbyhumans/pseuds/deathishauntedbyhumans
Summary: After a bad dream where he can’t save Ford from the alien prison drone, Dipper needs his sister’s reassurance that everything really is okay.





	What If (It Doesn’t Matter)

**Author's Note:**

> I don’t think abt _Dipper &Mabel vs. The Future_ a lot, bc I think a lot more abt Weirdmageddon and the effects of that more often than anything else, but I rewatched the episode earlier today and I had ideas for Words. 
> 
> Dipper doesn’t get paid enough to deal with anything he’s ever had to deal with in his life.

The only other person on the bus is an old lady that’s been asleep in one of the seats nearest to the bus driver for hours. (Mabel isn’t entirely sure she’s still alive, but the bus driver doesn’t seem concerned, so she’s not about to go poking around up there if she can help it.)

Dipper is asleep, too, head leaning against the window, feet in Mabel’s lap. He’s drooling. Mabel giggled when she’d first noticed, but it’s been awhile, and she’s more bored than amused, now.

She’s just about to push Dipper’s feet off her lap so that she can dig in her backpack when he starts to mumble in his sleep, face contorting in a mixture of pain and fear that she’s seen all-too-much in the past week. It _scares_ her, especially when Dipper gasps and sits bolt upright.

“Great Uncle Ford!”

Dipper’s feet fall to the sticky floor of the bus with a thud, and he looks around wildly. Wide-eyed, it’s all Mabel can do to stare at him until he meets her gaze.

“Dipper, it’s me,” she says, and he continues to stare, chest heaving, until she carefully reaches over and pokes his shoulder. “Calm down, brobro. We’re on the bus home, remember?”

For a good second, Dipper _doesn’t_ look like he remembers, and Mabel feels her heart clench, because what if Bill is back? What if he did something to her brother? What if she has to figure out how to defeat him again, without anyone else to help her? What if—

“Mabel,” Dipper says, sounding relieved, and Mabel can breathe again, because Dipper relaxes into the stiff, dirty bus seat and rubs his hands over his face.

Wordlessly, Mabel pulls her backpack into her lap and digs out a tissue that’s only partially covered in sparkles. She hands it to Dipper, and he wipes the drool from his cheek with a disgusted look on his face.

“You okay, Dip Dop?” she asks, because now that he’s not a second away from paranoid panic, he just looks _exhausted._

Which is… Yeah. Mabel is exhausted, too, but she doesn’t feel like sleeping. It’s a weird kind of exhaustion, one that makes her feel sluggish, but that also makes her want to get up and dance around until she drops.

“I had a… _ugh_ ,” Dipper says, shoving the tissue into one of the pockets of his vest. “I had a nightmare.”

Mabel stiffens. “A… A Bill nightmare?”

Dipper shakes his head slowly. “No, it… it didn’t feel like that. And he wasn’t there. It was just…” He looks up, meeting Mabel’s gaze again, and it feels like there’s something he doesn’t know how to tell her, which is _bizarre,_ because she’s pretty sure they’ve bared their whole souls to each other in the wake of Weirdmageddon.

“Just what?”

“I…” Dipper swallows audibly; Mabel can hear it from where she’s sitting. “I didn’t get to tell you about what happened before Ford offered me the apprenticeship,” he says carefully, like he’s afraid of her reaction.

In the first second, the reminder that Dipper nearly stayed behind in Gravity Falls without her _does_ sting, just a little. But that sting is washed clean away by the reminder that Dipper is _here,_ on the bus back to California with her. He didn’t stay with Grunkle Ford. He didn’t _take_ the apprenticeship.

She nods encouragingly, schooling her features into an expression of carefully crafted innocence mixed with intrigue. She knows it usually makes Dipper laugh, and he _does_ smile a little. The relief on his face is palpable.

She’s _so_ glad they’re here, together. If Dipper hadn’t come back with her… She doesn’t know _what_ she would have done.

“We found a spaceship,” Dipper says, and Mabel blinks in surprise.

“You found a _what?!”_

Dipper rubs at the back of his neck. “Yeah! Apparently there’s a spaceship that crashed to Earth a million years ago that’s hidden under, like, _all_ of Gravity Falls. Uncle Ford found it when he was building the portal and took parts from it. We went down into it to find some alien glue to try and stabilize the dimensional rift.” Dipper winces and looks at Mabel nervously, but Mabel has put it all behind her.

Mostly.

Okay, so it stings a _little,_ because yeah, all of this stuff happened without her and it happened between Dipper and Grunkle Ford and it’s _definitely_ more nerdy than she would have had fun with, but… C’mon! A spaceship? Didn’t they even _think_ about her at all?

Moving on. Right. Putting it behind her. Mabel nods again, poking Dipper in the nose. “Get to the point, brobro.”

Dipper rubs at his nose, looking grumpy. “Okay, okay. So we went down there and Ford said that nothing worked, and then somehow the old security system got reactivated, and…”

It takes Mabel a moment to realise just why Dipper has trailed off. At first, she’s sure he’s just being dramatic, drawing out some heroic ending that will make him sound bigger and badder than he really is. And then she studies him, looking closely, and… Dipper just looks _scared._ He looks downright terrified, and his breathing is picking up again, speeding until it’s nearly at hyperventilation mode, and Mabel’s not sure what happened down in that spaceship, but Dipper’s starting to freak her out.

“Dipper—?”

Dipper startles, grabbing automatically for one of Mabel’s hands. She lets him take it, curling her fingers reassuringly around his as he squeezes tightly.

“Great Uncle Ford almost got taken by an alien prison ship and I almost flew into space on the outside of it,” Dipper says in a rush, barely comprehensible. He’s gripping her hand so hard it almost hurts, but she can’t even think about pulling away because Dipper is closing his eyes tightly like he can block out the world and his hand is shaking in hers even as he holds on.

“Dipper, it’s okay,” Mabel tries to reassure, her voice soft, even though she’s definitely freaking out a little inside. Her brother and her grunkle almost got blasted off into _space_ and she wouldn’t… she wouldn’t have even _known!_ And yeah, they’re okay, but now Dipper is holding onto her like he’s afraid it might happen again if he lets go and it’s scary and bad and—

Mabel forces herself to take a deep breath. She can freak out when it’s her turn to freak out. Right now, it’s Dipper’s, which means she needs to be the calm, collected twin.

“You guys got out of it,” she murmurs. “And everything is okay.”

Dipper shakes his head rapidly. “But what if we hadn’t, Mabel?” he asks, and Mabel bites her lip. Takes another deep breath.

“That doesn’t matter.” There’s a confidence she doesn’t truly feel in her tone, and she takes comfort in the steadiness of her own voice. “You’re safe, Dipper. Grunkle Ford isn’t in space. _You’re_ not in space. You’re safe, with me, on a bus, headed back to California.”

“In my dream,” Dipper bites out quietly. “In my dream, I couldn’t help him. I couldn’t get the magnet gun to work—“ Mabel takes this at face value, because let’s face it: she’s seen weirder things this summer. “—and Ford was disappointed in me, and then the prison drone jumped into hyperspace and left me alone in the spaceship, and… and… I couldn’t help him.”

Mabel barely digests the information at hand before she tugs Dipper into a hug, and he lets her wrap her arms around him, melting into her embrace. “Sincere sibling hug,” she whispers, and Dipper lets out a huff that’s either laughter or a sob. She’ll take it. “That was just a bad dream, Dipper. You really did save him in real life. Everything’s okay.”

They stay locked in the hug for another moment, until Dipper nudges at her arms and she drops them again. His eyes are rimmed with red, the way he looks when he cries or when he gets too emotional, but he isn’t hyperventilating anymore, which is a good sign.

“You’re right,” he says, and Mabel nods. “You’re right. I— I’m fine. I’m okay, and Great Uncle Ford is okay, and Gravity Falls— Gravity Falls is okay.”

“And we’re okay,” Mabel adds to his list, offering her fist out to him. Dipper smiles tremulously and bumps her fist with his own.

“And we’re okay,” he amends. “Thanks, Mabel.”

Mabel grins at him. “Anytime, Dip Dop. That’s what the best twin sister you’ve ever had is here for.” She pokes at his stomach.

Dipper begins to laugh and swats at her hand until she acquiesces and pulls back. “You’re the only twin sister I have,” he points out, and Mabel waves a finger at him.

“And don’t you forget it!”

Dipper shakes his head, but he’s still laughing, letting out that silly little breathy laughing sound he makes when he’s trying not to laugh and failing at it. “We should both try and get some more sleep,” he states, and Mabel makes a face.

He’s right, though, and they both know it. Their parents are going to want to spoil them when they get home, they both know it, and going out to dinner exhausted after not seeing them for the whole summer sounds like the epitome of a bad time. She sighs dramatically and pulls her legs up to her chest, covering them with her sweater.

 _“Fine,”_ she mutters, and Dipper smiles at her and curls up against the window again.

It takes less than ten minutes for the gentle humming of the bus to put both of them to sleep, and it takes less than a half hour for them to gravitate towards one another. They both wake up when their heads knock together when the bus goes over a nasty pothole, but they laugh together, so it’s alright. Mabel’s pretty sure she wouldn’t trade that for anything in the world… not even a Time Bubble.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos/comments are love! Come scream at me on tumblr @deathishauntedbyhumans.


End file.
